"The Battle of Russia," Chapter V of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight"
series, follows the beginning of the end for Adolph Hitler. In Part
Two, the German army falls victim to the Soviet scorched-earth strategy.
The Russian forces flee from the start, retreating deep into their
homeland, drawing the Nazis farther and farther away from the German
border. As the Red Army falls back, it destroys infrastructure and
natural resources, making it difficult for the Nazi army to live off the
land. Once the famed Russian winter sets in, Germany is doomed. The
film focuses on the stalwart defense of Leningrad. After the Nazis
surround the Soviet metropolis in an attempt to starve out its
residents, the Russians outsmart them by constructing a fully
operational railroad across a frozen lake to get supplies to the
beleaguered citizens. The Battle of Russia ends up as a disaster for the
Germans, who lose more than 800,000 men.


This movie is part of the collection: Cinemocracy

Producer: Frank Capra
Audio/Visual: sound, color

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: sirderek - - June 26, 2011
Subject: Why we fight: The battle of Russia Part two.
A five star WWII documentary.

Reviewer: chudi - - April 24, 2008
Subject: Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia Part II
Documentar

Reviewer: bratman - - December 27, 2005
Subject: Why we fight movies
Jean and I are old enough to remember when these movies were playing in theaters. Just as info for anyone here, there were not in colour, and these shown here are not in colour either. The Internet Archive says they are in colour, not sure why, but it's black and white. Very few movies were coloured back then. The cameras were very expensive, and the film required three separate strips of celluloid.

Reviewer: GCarty - - December 18, 2005
Subject: Siege of Leningrad
It seems like the makers of the film, in order to emphasize the heroism of the residents of Leningrad, have omitted to mention one fundamental fact concerning the siege.

The Nazis never intended to actually take the city of Leningrad, but rather to obliterate it along with its population. The endurance of the Leningraders is rather more understandable (albeit less heroic) if one realizes that they, like the Warsaw Ghetto Jews, were marked for extermination by the Nazis.